| dc.description.abstract | John Clement was my student at UCL. When he graduated and wanted to undertake further training in pathology, I advised him of a vacant position at The London Hospital Medical College [later QMUL], which he took, and thus entered micro-anatomical and forensic research. When he removed to Melbourne, he established the renowned femur collection which enabled many international collaborators to access first class, well documented human bone research material. At UCL, we established a facility for determining the fabric level mineralisation density of bone at the sub-micron scale using quantitative backscattered electron imaging in an automated digital scanning electron microscopy system [qBSE-SEM]. We also introduced confocal scanning optical microscopy [CSLM] to bone studies and developed methods for marrying the information contents from these important methodologies. At the same time, Jim Elliott developed X-ray microtomography [XMT] at QMUL and we correlated all these methods. John provided us several femur samples, which like most other research material at the time we embedded in PMMA, en route to smart imaging with SEM and CSLM. John, with David Thomas, took to XMT in Melbourne. Unable to compete with XMT for large volume 3D imaging for the vascular space compartment in bone, we took to casting aside the bone in our precious blocks by dissolving it with sequential treatments with HCl and NaOCl solutions, leaving a cast of the marrow spaces and the osteocyte lacunar-canalicular space. The latter was so abundant that it blocked visibility of the blood vessel canal spaces, so we destroyed it by ultrasonication to clean the residual cast. This was in earlier days coated with gold to give surface conductivity and an enhanced BSE signal, but latterly we have simply used uncoated samples at say 50Pa chamber pressure to circumvent charging problems. The resin casts allow us to image the space compartment in bone at a resolution far superior to that obtainable by XMT, allowing new insights into growth, modelling and remodelling processes in compact bone tissue. | en_US |
